I’m so sick of being treated like an idiot by the media – in this case, my local newspaper – that I’m ready to scream. It goes on constantly in all my local papers and I’ll bet the same thing happens where you live.

The latest “news story” I read in the Contra Costa Times frosted me. On Aug. 17, 2004, page 3-A, a big, color picture of three somber men noted as relatives of four other men who were killed in an accident a few days earlier. Below that, individual color pictures of the dead were shown.

The way the story was written turned my stomach.

The family wants “help to send the crash victims back home together.” We’re told families in two countries are mourning and they can’t afford the expenses. The end of the story explains what they’re doing to raise money.

Talk about a blatant intent to stimulate donations.

The four dead are described as “men from Mexico.” Relatives say they “left Mexico in search of work and a better life.” “They wanted to improves themselves, find jobs and make a good living.

The two dead brothers came to the United States four years ago and lived with their three older brothers and other family members already here. The other two dead men “moved to California” within the year and also lived with family.

The news story then devotes nearly five paragraphs to describing how hard they worked, how they loved family members, what their social and sports activities were, where they were going that night and, by the way, they worked in construction and landscaping.

Uh-Oh.

Then we’re given the details of what injuries killed which occupant of the vehicle. While the official word remains that the cause of the accident is “under investigation,” we are given some explanation.

What happened? The paper says they “died” (no, they were killed) when “their car erupted into flames after crossing into oncoming traffic on … and colliding with a truck.”

Hope you caught that. It sounds as though they were innocent victims of their own car with a mind of its own. Well, no. Take a closer look at that sentence.

What it really says is they drove their car into oncoming traffic, smashed into a truck (Head on? Who knows?) and their vehicle burst into flames. Sounds different, doesn’t it? I contend it was intentionally written to sound as though these men were just innocent victims of circumstance.

Note: a four-column, five-inch photo plus four other pictures, all in color, and 20 paragraphs of saccharine description. What about the police? Less than three lines stating that it’s under investigation.

Not one word as to immigration status of the men. Not one word as to whether alcohol or drugs were involved. Nothing as to the legality of their driving, the registration of their vehicle or if they carried insurance.

No surprise. It’s so politically incorrect to raise those issues.

But wait a minute. They crashed into another vehicle. What about that? Oh, that.

In six lines, buried near the end of the story, we’re told a 52-year-old woman – the driver of the truck which was hit by that car traveling in the wrong direction – suffered major injuries and was hospitalized in fair condition.

Anything about her family? Her life? Her activities? Her chance of survival and in what condition?

Of course not.

These newspapers, so-called bastions of journalism with a capital J, are nothing more than politically correct propagandists. They give us news they want us to hear, leave out what they don’t agree with, and slant stories to fit their intent.

There’s nothing “fair and balanced” about them and nothing objective either. About the only good thing I can say is that I always know where they stand – w-a-a-a-y-y-y over on the left of any situation.

In this case, the issue they pussyfoot around is that of illegal aliens.

First, never call them “illegals.” That’s a no-no. Then, never call them “aliens” despite the fact that, by definition, that is exactly what they are.

We’re not talking spacemen. We’re talking citizens of one country, illegally crossing the border of another country. Voila! Illegal alien in the second country.

The United States, despite the blind eye being cast by Democrats and Republicans on all government levels, is being overrun with illegals. They pay coyotes – smugglers of humans – thousands of dollars for help to sneak into this country and disappear among us.

Think of it – billions of your tax dollars going to people who aren’t citizens and are here illegally. We pay. They benefit. What else for them? Driver’s licenses, legal ID, the right to vote, university tuition benefits. How about amnesty? Just give the felons citizenship.